


I'll Hold You Up Above Everyone

by idioticfangirl



Series: Fantober 2020 (The Cherry Pie Series) [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Picnics, Pillow Fights, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26837701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idioticfangirl/pseuds/idioticfangirl
Summary: Nico only has one idea for his first date with Will - a picnic.  So when it starts raining, and he's forced to think of Plan B, it's all hands on deck to save the day for the two of them.Written for Fantober Day 3 - Rainy Days
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Fantober 2020 (The Cherry Pie Series) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950112
Kudos: 32





	I'll Hold You Up Above Everyone

Nico was worried. He had been ever since he woke up at 9am, 4 hours earlier than he would usually even consider opening his eyes, and remembered that today was the day of his first date with Will.

To be honest, he was surprised that Will had agreed to go on this date, or heard him at all considering how quietly he had blurted, “Wouldyouliketogoonadatewithme?”, but he wasn’t going to question it. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and all that - unless you’re from Troy, of course. 

There was one problem with Will saying yes, however. That meant he had to go on the date. As in, had to plan a suitable day out for the two of them, make small talk (which he hated) and in general try and make himself seem as likeable as possible, on the off chance that Will hadn’t realised his mistake yet. His first, and frankly only, thought had been a picnic, so he had pinned all of his hopes on the vague promise of getting the Hermes cabin to give him some food, and finding a nice spot - in the woods? On the beach? What did Will like? - and going from there.

So when the sound of rain hitting the roof of his cabin woke him, he knew that he was going to have to come up with another plan, and fast. He lay there in desperation, first cursing the gods for choosing today to make it rain before praying to Aphrodite, Apollo and, for some reason, his father, that he could think of something. They all ignored him.

His last hope felt even worse than praying to Hades for dating advice, and that had taken a lot out of him. It took a good five minutes of psyching himself up to even be able to knock on the door of the Poseidon cabin, and when he did and Percy was standing there, grinning his lopsided grin and generally looking confused in his adorable, puppy-dog way, Nico wished he could run away.

“I need help,” he muttered, blushing when Annabeth appeared next to Percy. Bad enough that he had to embarrass himself by asking his former crush and general role model to meddle in his love-life, but Annabeth too?

“Alright,” Percy agreed easily, and Nico was shocked once again by how naive he was, “what’s up?”

“I. Uh.”

Annabeth narrowed her eyes, “Shouldn’t you be going to Piper?”

“He hasn’t even said anything yet,” Percy protested, shooting Annabeth a warning glance, “maybe his cabin is leaking.”

Nico threw his hands in the air, moving through embarrassed into mortified, and coming out the other side with considerably less care for what they thought of him. “Does everyone know?”

“Will wasn’t subtle about it.” Percy admitted, scratching his head. “Come in.” He opened the door wider, and Nico saw Jason, Piper and Leo sitting on the floor of the room - or, in Leo’s case, lounging in a way that could not be comfortable. “Told you guys he’d come here first. If you wanted help, of course.” He seemed almost apologetic. 

“So,” Leo propped himself up on his elbows, “want some love advice from the big man himself?”

“Why did you bring him again?” Percy asked Jason, raising an eyebrow. 

“Sometimes his ideas are so stupid they might work.”

“I don’t know what to do for the date.” Nico announced, louder than he meant to so that he shouted over whatever it was Percy said in response. “And I’m running out of time to think of anything.”

“You don’t...have an idea?” Annabeth looked personally affronted. “We thought you’d just be panicking.”

“I was going to have a picnic,” he stared resolutely at the wall, “but then. This.” He gestured to the roof. “So now I need a way of making sure Will has a good day. And don’t,” glaring at each of them in turn, “say he will no matter what. What kind of dates do you guys go on?” It was a last-ditch effort.

Percy frowned. “We’ve gone to a few museums, some beaches, some restaurants…”

“We were being attacked in all of those.”

“We still had fun!”

Nico turned helplessly to Piper, who shook her head. “Our memories of dates have been faked, so unless you want Hera’s idea of good dates, it’s a no-go.”

“So I have to go to a landmark and get attacked, or have my memories altered. Sounds great.”

“Those are just what we’ve done,” Piper replied gently, “you and Will will have your own dates, with your own memories and your own interests. Even if we had good ideas, they might not have worked for you.”

“Me and Annabeth kissed at the bottom of the lake,” Percy chimed in.

“You’re not helping, Seaweed Brain.”

“The picnic was a good idea, Nico,” Jason told him, and the praise made him feel warm, “I’m sure you can think of another.”

“I’ve been trying to for hours!”

“If the picnic was such a good idea,” Nico jumped, having forgotten Leo was there until he started talking, “why not do that.”

“It’s raining, Leo.”

Leo looked at Nico as though he was the idiot. “So? Just don’t do it outdoors.”

“What?”

“Just. Get all the stuff for the picnic, and take it into your cabin. Tell Will you planned for a picnic, but it was raining, so you did the next best thing. He appreciates the original idea and you get points for adapting to the rain. Win win!”

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a while.”

“But it could work.” Jason winked at Percy. “Told you he could be helpful.

“Well,” Piper clapped her hands, “Operation Indoor Picnic is a go. Come on!” She stood up, “We have to get food, get blankets, and clean Nico’s cabin.” She whisked him out of the door, and everyone else followed.  
The next hour passed in a blur of cleaning supplies and threatening the Stoll brothers, but eventually Nico found that he could actually see the floor of his cabin, with a blanket laid out in the middle and a lot of food spread across it. 

“Have fun!” Percy waved as they left, giving Nico ten minutes to calm himself down before he had to meet Will, “Be yourself, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“Jerk,” Nico muttered, but he was smiling.

The ten spare minutes didn’t calm him down, if anything he was more anxious than ever by the time he had forced his shaky legs to the Apollo cabin to greet Will. The door opened seconds after his first knock, and Will was standing there, grinning and flushed. He said something to his siblings, and then stepped forwards, giving Nico only a few seconds to jump back before he was barrelled into. 

Will looked up, frowning slightly. “It’s raining,” he announced, as though Nico wasn’t fully aware of that fact. “I don’t like the rain.”

“We’ll be inside,” Nico promised, surprising himself by managing to make his voice come out strong. “So it’ll be okay.”

“Inside?” Will quirked an eyebrow. “What will we be doing?” Immediately he blushed. “Not that - I didn’t mean!”

“We’re having a picnic,” Nico took pity on him, Will’s anxiety quelling some of his own. “It was going to be outside, but I made do.”

“Nice,” Will nodded appreciatively. “That’s a cool idea.” Nico made a mental note to tell Leo that, just this once, he had said something helpful. Not that he would be telling Will to give Leo the credit. 

He opened the door to his cabin, and Will whistled appreciatively at the blankets and, most of all, the food. “How did you get all this?” He picked up a can of coke. 

“Hermes cabin.”

“Did you offer to do their chores for an entire year? The Stolls would never part with this much. They gave you a whole cherry pie!”

Nico thought back to it. “Actually,” he took a deep breath. “I didn’t plan all of this on my own. My friends helped. I think Percy dealt with the food, he’s good with that stuff. I’ll ask him later if I need to pay him back.”

“Ah,” Will didn’t seem put out by the idea that Nico had had help, so he hoped he hadn’t blown it just yet. “I can’t imagine they charged him a lot for it.”

“That’s what you get for being the hero of two prophecies,” Nico agreed, wishing the conversation hadn’t cycled round to Percy, as so many of his conversations tended to. “And the son of Poseidon.”

“And a nice guy.”

“That too,” Nico desperately sought out another topic to discuss, but before he could say anything Will was talking again.

“But I didn’t come here to talk about Percy. I want to get to know you, Nico.” Nico stared at him, dumbfounded, and Will blushed. “Sorry, was that too forward?”

“No!” Nico yelped, swallowing his fear and the last bite of his sandwich. “What do you want to know?”

A lot of food, a game of 20 questions and a heated discussion over the best comic book superhero later, Nico found himself feeling a lot more at home. He stood up, dusting crumbs off his jeans, to pack away the remains of the food, when he felt something soft hit the back of his head, and looked at the ground to see his pillow landing at his feet. Will was giggling.

“You did not just throw that pillow at me!” Nico turned around, unable to sound even vaguely threatening over the audible smile in his voice. He picked it up, moving swiftly to lunge at Will, who was laughing too hard to defend himself well with the pillow he had hastily picked up. 

Cleaning up forgotten, Nico started to chase Will around the room, dodging very well-aimed cushions and blankets, hitting him lightly in the stomach or head whenever he got within striking distance before dancing away. Eventually he cornered Will, who was out of ammo and out of breath from laughing and running, hitting him a few times with his pillow for good measure before dropping it, laughing along with him. 

“Sorry,” Will gasped, wiping tears from his eyes, “made a mess of your room.”

“It was fun though.”

“Definitely.”

“So,” Nico screwed up all of his courage, “would you like to do this again? With me? Or something else, I don’t mind what.”

“As long as I get to arrange it next!” Will agreed brightly, and Nico grinned back, even as he wondered if this date had been so bad that Will wasn’t going to let him arrange another. “I’ll have to think, though, how to make it even better than this one.” 

“I’m not sure if that will be possible,” Nico replied, trying to keep his voice level and the laughter out of it.

“Hmm, this one did have cherry pie. Pretty unbeatable, that. Maybe I’ll have to relax the whole time and leave all the date organising to you, sound good?” At that, Will picked the pillow up again, holding it threateningly, and Will stuck his tongue out before darting out of the door, ducking the pillow that flew over his head.

“See you soon!” He waved, and Nico waved back, thanking the gods that it had chosen to rain today.


End file.
